Your child can keep one of their own books on a tablet or phone so it opens with no internet, on a plane, in a car or anywhere else without a connection. Keeping a book downloads its words, its pictures and, if it has one, its recorded voice onto that device.
Keeping a book
Your child does this from their own screens, while the device is online.
- Find a book your child made, under "Books you made" on the home screen or under "I made" in "My books".
- Tap the download arrow in the top corner of the cover. A screen reader announces it as "Keep (the book's title) on this tablet, for when there is no internet".
- While it downloads, the cover shows "Getting ready", then how many pieces are done, such as "3 of 12".
- When the book is kept, the arrow turns into a tick. Tapping the tick takes the book off the device again.
The arrow is only on books your child made, not on books from the shared library. If keeping does not work, the cover says why:
| Message | What it means |
|---|---|
| "This tablet cannot keep books." | This browser cannot store books for offline reading. |
| "This one is too big to keep." | The book alone is larger than the space allowed. |
| "That needs internet. Try again when you have some." | The device was offline when the download started. |
| "We could not keep that one just now." | Something else went wrong. Try again later. |
If the arrow is not there at all, the browser cannot keep books, or we have switched keeping off for a while. Books already kept still open while it is off.
Opening a kept book with no internet
On the home screen, the "On this tablet" tile (not shown for ages 2 to 5) opens "Books on this tablet", which lists every kept book with its number of pages and size. Your child taps a book to read it. If your child taps something that needs the internet while the device is offline, they are taken to this page instead, so the books that still work are in front of them. The page lives at /offline on that device.
A kept book reads the same way as it does online, with its recorded voice if it has one. Where your child got to is saved on the device, and is sent to us the next time "Books on this tablet" is opened with a connection, so reading done offline can appear on your Activity page later.
How many books fit
One device keeps up to 8 books, and about 400 MB in all. The limit is for the device, so if two children share a tablet, their kept books count together.
When the device is full, keeping another book takes off the book that has gone longest without being opened. The page says so: "This tablet holds 8 books at a time. Keeping another will take off the one you have not opened for longest." Each time your child opens a book it moves to the back of that queue, so a book they are partway through is not the first to go. The browser itself may also clear what it has stored if the device runs very short of space.
To take a book off by hand, use "Remove" next to it on "Books on this tablet".
A kept book belongs to the device
A kept book is stored in the browser on that device, not in your account. Anyone who can unlock the device can open "Books on this tablet" and read the kept books, without signing in and even after your child has signed out. It is worth thinking about this on a tablet that is shared, borrowed, or about to be given away.
To remove every kept book at once, use "Forget this device" on the device itself:
- Sign in to your own account on that device.
- Find the card called "Reading on this device" on your Safety page. It is also on your Home page, and on a phone under More, as "This device".
- Press "Forget this device", read what it will do, and confirm. The button is there once the device has been set up for reading.
This signs out anyone reading on the device, stops your readers signing in there until you set it up again, and removes the kept books from it. Their books stay in your account. Trusted devices explains setting a device up again.
If a kept book will not open with no internet, ask us from Help in your dashboard and tell us which device and browser you are using.